There is a rich tradition of arts in the Pikes Peak region,
and one of its foremost institutions
just turned 100 years old.
The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
at Colorado College is celebrating its origins
dating back to its inception as the Broadmoor Art Academy.
- For students, teachers, artists and performers,
the Fine Arts Center has been a destination
and inspiration for generations.
Kate takes us inside this historic space to learn more.
(relaxing music)
- [Leah Davis Witherow] For generations,
before there even was a Colorado Springs
or the Broadmoor Art Academy,
artists had been drawn to the region
because of the spectacular scenic beauty.
So, artist like Thomas Moran and George Caleb Bingham
and Albert Bierstadt visited the Pikes Peak region
and drew inspiration from the mountains,
and the plains, the beautiful weather.
They painted, they drew, they photographed
and those images made their way back East,
and, in the minds of many Americans,
they were already familiar with what lay out West
even before they might have come themselves
in the late 19th, early 20th century.
This place has been a source of inspiration for artists,
and continues to be that to this day.
- This building, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
at Colorado College would come to play a massive role
for artists and performers from around the country,
and even the world.
This institution got its start under a different name,
the Broadmoor Art Academy, which opened in October of 1919.
- [Leah] Julie Penrose and her husband, Spence Penrose,
gave a gift of Julie's former home in Colorado Springs.
They wanted to formalize training, they wanted to bring
the best of the world to Colorado Springs.
The Broadmoor Art Academy drew
the finest talent in the country.
So, early on, Robert Reid came.
He oversaw portrait and figure painting.
They attracted John F. Carlson.
John F. Carlson taught landscape painting
at the Broadmoor Art Academy.
These were leading figures in the art world
in the United States.
Their reputations were so widespread
that they drew students who wanted to come here
to follow in their footsteps.
They thought they might have 15, 20 students,
and by the end of the summer, they had over 80 adults
and probably another dozen young people.
- They could not only exhibit artwork,
but they could also have instructors here
helping people learn about art
and how to become artists.
And also to have all sorts of gatherings
and artistic performances and expressions.
This really carried forward through the Great Depression,
as a matter of fact, and really served
as a hub for the arts in Colorado Springs.
(cheerful music) - [Leah] In one word,
the atmosphere of the Broadmoor Academy was "fun".
It was raucous, it was avant garde.
- But there, the separation between faculty and student,
it was more like a family.
- [Leah] They threw wild parties, they socialized together,
they went on hikes, they took picnics,
they did plein air painting in Garden of the Gods.
It brought just a touch of whimsy
and fun to Colorado Springs.
- It does attract people from across the country.
And so, we were always having visiting artists
that came in from London, from...
Wherever.
- [Leah] And they kept coming.
You have people like Tabor Utley, Ernest Lawson,
Arnold Blanch, Doris Lee.
The legion of artists is simply incredible,
and it puts Colorado Springs on the map
in terms of a place to be in comradery
with your fellow artists.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s,
there is a transition happening,
and there are three incredibly powerful visionary women
behind the transition from the Broadmoor Art Academy
to the Fine Arts Center.
So, Alice Bemis Taylor has a phenomenal collection
of Southwest materials.
She keeps it in her home.
She wants to do something quite generous.
She wants to give or endow a library building
at Colorado College.
She's working in concert with
and friends with Elizabeth Sage Hare.
Elizabeth Sage Hare has come to Colorado Springs
from New York City and Santa Fe.
Her credentials are astounding,
she knows everyone in the arts scene.
They are also friends with Julie Penrose,
the original sponsor contributor
to the Broadmoor Art Academy.
- And they really envisioned transforming
what had been the Broadmoor Art Academy
into this multi-disciplinary Arts Center
that would celebrate all of the arts under one roof.
- [Leah] They dream up a fine arts center,
a union of dance, and music, and theatre, and fine arts,
a palace of fine arts, if you will,
where Colorado Springs can see and participate
in absolutely the best that the world has to offer
in terms of avant garde art, theatre, dance, et cetera.
And they build this beautiful building
designed by John Gaw Meem,
and it opens in April of 1936,
and it hits the papers worldwide.
Martha Graham dances at the opening.
There is an exhibit of loaned art
that includes Cezannes, Renoirs, Picassos.
- Erik Satie's performance of Socrate was on the stage
with a set by Alexander Calder.
- For the opening, they had Frank Lloyd Wright
and they had other very prominent people.
Everything was right from the start,
and people came all over from across the country
to attend the opening.
And so, that was interesting to be around.
- [Leah] The Fine Arts Center today has educated
and inspired generations of local students.
The Bemis Art School continues to guide arts education
and really has set the bar high in terms of
what local people can see, what they can do,
what they can dream of.
- The catalyst for what we know now as
the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
really was Alice Bemis Taylor's
collection of Southwest treasures.
- [Kate] And the boundaries, borders, and demographics
of the Southwest have changed over the years.
- So the joy of my job is I get to redefine it
anytime I want.
- As curator, Polly reworked the Southwest Gallery
here in the permanent collection Fine Arts Center
in anticipation of the 100th anniversary.
It's been an opportunity to showcase
this remarkable, rare collection.
- You'll find anything from performance art,
installation, cheer traditional pottery,
painting and weaving.
(inspirational music)
So, as a Native museum professional,
it has been definitely a challenge to balance
the devastating history that Native people have experienced,
especially in this region.
Our history is to have an eradication policy
to get rid of Native peoples.
And so, it's really kind of fascinating that
there were art aficionados, let's call them,
that were interested in Native art.
There was a small number of social elites
across the country, in the 20s especially,
that were really interested in Native arts.
And Alice Bemis Taylor was one of those.
She was focused on pottery and Navajo textiles.
And then, as this museum was established,
then the collection really started to grow.
- Alice Bemis Taylor played an integral part
in collecting new Native works,
and it was also under her patronage
that the Fine Arts Center began collecting
Hispanic art forms, which very few institutions
were doing at the time.
- [Polly] So, we actually have one of
the premier collections in the US.
We can really show how this region
really was a part of the global art world
exchange system for hundreds of years.
- And here in this wing of the Fine Arts Center,
the in-house theatre company continues the performance
and instruction that began at the Broadmoor Art Academy
100 years ago.
- [Erin] We've just recently won five Henry Awards,
which is sort of like the Tonys for the state of Colorado.
And we're very proud that the big award at the Henrys,
the Outstanding Season Award, was the big award
that the theatre company earned.
- [Kate] And in 2016, the Fine Arts Center announced
a historic alliance with Colorado College,
formally merging the two institutions.
- There has been a relationship between
the Fine Arts Center and Colorado College
literally since the Broadmoor Art Academy days
when we served as the de facto art department
for the college.
And we've had some kind of collaborative relationship
with CC for that entire time,
and so it feels very natural now
to be formalizing that relationship and
joining forces to be able to do more together
than we ever could individually.
- [Leah] What I love about the FAC is that it's a beacon.
No matter the transition, the decade, the director
or the curator, the Fine Arts Center manages
to push boundaries.
- So many pioneers have come through
the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center
and have been a part of this rich history.
We are really excited to see what happens
in the next 100 years, and are so thrilled to have
our community be a part of helping us tell that story.
- I think it means everything to the community.
(inspirational music)
- How stunning, the Southwest collection looks amazing.
What was it like to film that story?
- Oh, we had such a great time on location.
I love going to the Fine Arts Center for any occasion,
but being able to celebrate this extraordinary
cultural legacy of the Pikes Peak region
is just phenomenal.
- That's really cool,
and what a great opportunity and experience you had.
For more information, visit fac.coloradocollege.edu.